1. Now that muddy conditions are prevailing, having the wall-mounted feeder assists in clean hay.
Fran has had a tendency, however, to aggressively pull all the hay out of the feeder so it piles on the floor. When I first noticed this, I'd watch her, then pick up mounds of hay off the floor and place them back in the feeder.
Thankfully, she seems to be changing her style a bit. And, thankfully we've not had full-out flooding in the shed. Only the front section is water-soaked.
2. Behold the combo of ice, snow and mud.
3. Amend #2 to say melting snow.
But you know what -- I'm not complaining. I'm looking out on a sunny day with a little less ice out there. That's fine with me.
The muddy part looks like my entire chicken lot...and we got another inch and a half of rain last night. Poor hens! We have a hay rack just like yours and have the same problem, all the hay being pulled out at once. We recently found a farm locally that sells square bales of hay, tightly baled, and banded with wire, not nylon string. We put the whole bale in the rack, which doesn't fit too good. The goats can only pull out small pieces. Always something! :)
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could get a whole bale in my feeder! I don't feed the donks too much as it is. A couple of years ago the vet told me Fran and Luigi could stand to lose a little weight and I told him how much I was feeding them. He kind of stared at me for a minute and said, "that's all? You're right, they're keeping the weight on with that little hay". Between the three of them I throw 2 flakes morning and night and when we open the pasture I cut down to 1 per feeding. If my pasture was more sustainable I'd cut hay out all together in the summer.
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